Why Angelica Didn’t Do It - Part 2

As the class ends, the students wrap up. Angelica also packs up her things and leaves. She heads outside to the hallway and comes to a sudden stop.

-“Hmm. I want to ask him what he thinks about the drawing.”

She opens up her backpack and grabs the finished drawing. She goes back to the class seeing some students are still leaving, and waits a bit so they finish getting out and make space to enter. After the entrance is clear, Angelica peeps into the class seeing nobody but the teacher. As she says “Hello...” the teacher turns around to her, with his damaged eyeball in his hand, and his face opened up looking disturbing like a picture from an anatomy book, making her scream and run away quickly.

She runs through the hallway tearing, as she suddenly bumps into someone and falls. On the floor, she starts crying.

-“Angelica! Are you okay?”

-“Crysty, I’m sorry... I just... I...”

She bumped into crysty who was looking for her after class.

-“Come with me, I want you to hear my new song. You will feel all better in a second!”

They get up and go to the music room. Crysty presses a button on the room’s left side wall, and an entrance to an editing room opens. It has recording gear with a DJ stand and keyboards with tons of mysterious buttons.

-“This is where I record my songs. My own personal studio.”

-“Is it really your own personal studio?” Angelica asks.

-“Well, technically I set a profile that the room “remembers”. When other students use it, both physical arrangements and technical features change in a custom way. When I book the studio - it is my own personal studio! Hahaha.” Crysty explains, seemingly proud.

-“Listen, I didn’t cry because I bumped into you. I actually saw our new teacher after...”

-“Oh! The robot one?” Crysty cuts in the middle.

-“You met him?” Angelica ask in surprise.

-“Yea.” Crysty confirms. “He is a musician as well. He teaches us too. Here, check out this beat that he taught Reef the other day.” Angelica says, opening up a music file of a hype beat that seems almost uncharacteristic to the image of the new robot teacher.

🎵”Boom, boom, boo-dabom, boom, boom ,boo-dabom.”🎵

-“A musician... As well?” Angelica says in awe. “It’s just... I saw him replace his eye, and it was very scary, but it was actually my fault, and...”

Angelica stops, calming herself down.

“I think I was rude. Should I go apologize?”

-“You can if u want. I’m sure he forgives you anyway. There’s no reason to be scared of human robots. They are really just like us. If anything, I think the scary thing is when A.I is just in computing as an engine. What if it takes over? What if it starts controlling art forever? In comparison, our teacher may be a robot but he applied human effort to improve in and teach art.” Crysty answers.

-“You are right. I want to go apologize anyway.”

Angelica leaves the room, and starts walking towards the class, hoping the teacher is still there. Soon enough, she notices him in the hallway.

“Hey teacher, I just wanted to...”

-“Oh! Angelica! I apologize! Finally found you...I’m sorry for scarring you. I know fixing myself may seem weird but for us it’s quite normal. Next time I’ll close the door to make sure I’m in private...”

-“No! It’s okay! I mean it might be a good idea to close the door, but what I mean is... I shouldn’t have ran away like that. I wanted to ask you what do you think of my finished drawing, since you really helped me a lot.” Angelica explains, trying to fully get his attention to her honest feelings.

-“Ah. I understand. Let’s see the finished product then. You have a scratch on your face. Are you okay?” He asks.

-“Oh, yes. I’m okay! I ran so fast earlier I bumped into Crysty, I heard you teach her too. I just never get used to be easily frightened. The patrol robots on the streets always spook me, although I know they are objectively-not-scary.”

-“Try to think of them as cute. You will grow bigger than them.”

-“Right!” Angelica says with a smile, holding out her drawing with two hands.

-“Careful, you don’t want to damage it by touching it too aggressively with your fingertips.”

He carefully looks at the drawing.

-“Are you happy with the decision to make the flowers fade too?” He asks.

-“Oh, I wanted to try doing what you taught me on other areas. Do you think it’s not good? Does the drawing look unfinished like that?” Angelica starts worrying.

-“Personally, I meant to show you that technique to make distant things fade, and so I preferred the flowers the way you originally colored them since they are closer. But whether this drawing is finished or not can only really be your choice, you know? You will learn and improve from your future creations as well.”

-“I want to keep it like this.” Angelica says, smiling.

-“Well then you better stop running in the hallways, and keep safe, since you have a great future as an artist. We don’t want to hurt ourselves, now do we?”

-“No teacher! Thank you!” Angelica reply, laughing a bit. She then quickly proceeds running to her marry way, forgetting already about the teacher’s warning about running in the hallway.

Year: 2300. Tokyo’s streets. Angelica finishes reminiscing about the past with Reef.

-“Ever since that day I stopped fearing even the patrol robots. Now we actually did grow bigger than them. Only now we can appreciate the severity of the fine they can give. Isn’t it crazy though? How even in 8 years of age she could have been our parent? She didn’t have as much experience as our teachers, but when you need someone... Christy is there. She was always there.” Angelica says, emotionally.

-“Yes. She always was. She could practically teach there as a child.I almost forgot that teacher being a robot. You still keep that drawing? I remember you told me everything that had happened that day when I saw that drawing for the first time. Crysty really liked it, and she also really liked our teacher.” Reef says.

“I think it’s time to head back to class, I’m pretty sure they just plan on all of us reporting first just before sending us home.” He adds.

They return to class and meet the rest of the students there. Everybody reported their progress and all goals for the day have been reached. The teacher then sends them home and Reef and Angelica walk together.

“Did Arney and albert finish earlier?” Reef asks.

-“Yes. I talked to Arney, they finished earlier with a bunch of other students, so they were sent home as a separate batch.” Angelica answers.

They keep walking until they reach Angelica’s house.

“Hey Reef!” Angelica suddenly looks emotional again. “Do you think our society is not going to make it? Do you think Crysty would have approved of the vandalism?”

Reef doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, then proceeds to answer: -“What kind of question is that? There is no way Crysty would have been okay with that. About society... I don’t really...”

-“Yea, you are right.” Angelica throws a quick response. “It’s already dark outside. When did it turn this dark? Well, see you tomorrow!”

Angelica enters her house waving to him and he waves right back to her. She then looks out of the window and sees him walking to the direction of his house, opposite of the direction they came from. She then makes a resting face of slight relief.

As Reef walks, he thinks to himself: “There’s no way Crysty would’ve approved of the ‘litter-terror’. But the thing about Angelica's story... What’s interesting about it - is not just that Crysty was correct about our teacher. It’s that she was correct about everything else too.”